Mystery Story

Summary

1952 BBC live studio production of Stanley Young’s science fiction play Mystery Song, adapted for television by Nigel Kneale.

Theatre play

Mystery Story by Stanley Young [more information]

Play synopsis

The scene is State College: outside, a floodlight football game is being played; inside the Observatory, Professor Le Normand lies in his chair.... His appearance causes a shock to the two young men who have called to visit him, and might cause something of a shock to the television audience; it is comforting to think that the children will be in bed. Thereafter, Mystery Story lives up to its title, discovering for us the cause of the unfortunate Professor’s condition. Jules Verne and H. G. Wells would highly approve of the ' ‘scientific-romantic ' mystery here being carried to the nth degree, in a flurry of plot based on the Space-Time Continuum and the impenetrability of natural forces-L. (Lionel Hale, Radio Times, 15 August 1952, p. 38)

Production history

Known to have been performed as a theatre play in Iowa in 1948 (See http://dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu/DI/1948/di1948-06-23.pdf; accessed 21 November 2014).

Date of transmission

Sunday 17 August 1952

Time

8.25-9.55pm

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Douglas Allen

Playwright

Stanley Young

Adapted for Television by

Nigel Kneale

Sets / Settings

Stephen Bundy

Cast

Joan Bell
Malcolm Black
Patrick Burns	Radio Commentator
Maurice Colbourne	Dr Lister
Anthony Collin
Paul Erickson	Barkeley Jones
Kim Grant
Vernon Gray	Jerry Lister
Charles Hersee
Winifred Hill
Olga Landiak	Selena
Bessie Love	Grace Jones
Greta Marley
Stanley Maxted	Detective Parsons
George Murcell	Sergeant Scanlan
Charles Richardson	President Murray
Richard Sherren
James E. Thompson	Waiter
Philip Vickers	Police Doctor

Additional details

Origination

Live from studio

Vision original

Monochrome

Later transmissions

Presented again at 7.30pm on Thursday 21 August 1952

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

America, as theme or setting; American drama; science fiction; universities, as theme or setting

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 15 August 1952 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing and short article, p. 38

Title

Scariest Movie Moments (Website)

Author/creator

Alan French (Author)

Reference

http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/general-film-chat/87777-scariest-movie-moments-10.html, dated April 2008

Notes

Recollection of seeing this play as a child of 7 or 8.